Heinz Landau is a seasoned business leader who has gained valuable working and leadership experience on three different continents.

A global workforce survey by Kelly Services, Inc. among 168,000 people in 30 countries revealed that 70% of the respondents think that experiences with multiple employers are an asset for their career development. The survey which was published last month states the new global trend according to which 53% of the respondents believe that changing from time to time your employer is more important to advance your career than to remain with the same employer during your whole working life.

I myself have worked for the same company more than 33 years. I am aware that less and less people will achieve that in future. This is not only caused by changing work preferences of the younger workforce, but it is also very much the result of today’s behaviour of  companies who often lay off people when not reaching their quarterly or annual financial numbers. Why should employees be loyal to their companies when companies aren’t showing loyalty to their staff.

Nevertheless, employees need to consider carefully when it is the right time to move and to move on only for the right reasons.

There are several wrong ones, like e.g. moving purely for monetary reasons, for a more prestigious job title, getting a new company car etc. Some employees quit from their current employer, because they are having a problem overthere. But be aware, if you run away from problems, you might be on the run your whole life. There is hardly any company where you won’t face a challenging situation from time to time.  Many people fall in the trap that they think “the grass is always greener on the other side”. But, of course, as most of us know (or sometimes have learned it the hard way), often, it isn’t.

To be clear, I am not discouraging you not to change your job at all, but it has to be for the right reason.

When welcoming new employees to my previous company, the newcomers were always very astonished during my welcome speech when I told them: “If you will not enjoy working here for any reason, please don’t just hang around. Life is too short to spend time in a place that you don’t enjoy! However, before quitting, I urge you to give our company first a fair chance. Talk to your boss, talk to your colleagues, discuss with people from our Human Resources Department. Discuss it with some family members or friends. But please make sure that you talk to some people that are older and more experienced than you and might have faced similar situations. Listen to what they are telling you. Give it some time and thought. And then you come up with your own decision.”

If the employee had selected the wrong company (or vice versa), after an adequate period of consideration the mistake should be corrected.

So what are the right reasons when you should change your job? The right ones are those where you listen to your heart and where you follow your passion.

So what are the right reasons when you should change your job? The right ones are those where you listen to your heart and where you follow your passion.

That’s why the wise Chinese philosopher Confucius stated already long time ago: “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”